Starting a druid
So, you're thinking of playing a Druid? This page is intended to give a short overview of what to do over the first 10 levels or so, just to get you started on the right path. If you're looking for more of an overview of the class's abilities, see the main Druid page. For more advanced topics, see the Druid Tactics. For even more info on Druids, see Category:Druids. For a more general overview on starting out playing WoW, see the Newbie Guide Race Selection Race selection is a moot point for Druids, as there is only the choice between the Alliance or the Horde. If you want to be a druid for the Horde, then you have to be a Tauren, and if you want to be an Alliance druid, you have to be a Night Elf. If you don't care about faction, then looking at the Racial Traits should give you an idea which to play. Tauren get a 5% increase to total health, which will help Druid Tanks, and War Stomp, one of the few stuns a Druid can get and thus very powerful if used correctly. Night Elves get an increase to dodge, and Shadowmeld, which will help greatly your stealth, since this trait stacks upon your Prowl spell also. Early Leveling The easiest way to progress through the early levels is to simply do any and all of the quests you can find. Not only will you breeze through the first 5 to 10 levels, but you'll get useful gear and precious money. Money is particularly important so you can purchase your spells. You will spend levels 1 to 5 in your starting town. Make sure you get all the spells you can from your trainer. Between level 5 and 6 you'll find yourself heading off to your second town and a new trainer who can teach you various things. At the second town, repeat the process - do each and every quest you can find. It's important to keep up with your abilities and your gear. Now is also an appropriate time to start training in your chosen professions. At early levels, a druid will mostly use their Wrath DD spell and Moonfire DoT spell to kill mobs intermixed with melee attacks. Always keep Mark of the Wild active and Thorns when you get it. Outside, when you get Entangling Roots, hit mobs with that first and cast a few ranged damage spells before resorting to melee combat. Use Rejuvenation HoT spell early on to keep your health up and Healing Touch for when you get really low. Levels 1 - 3 Initially, you're equipped with a ranged attack and a healing spell. With money, you can learn your first buff, Mark of the Wild. Keep this active at all times, and feel free to cast it on others as a friendly gesture. Begin combat at maximum range with Wrath, spamming it until the mob comes into melee range. Since Wrath is a missile attack, combat may not actually begin until the missile strikes, giving you the opportunity to cast another bolt while the first one is in flight. While up close, switch to your melee attack. Heal when necessary. For Tauren, you can War Stomp a mob at melee range to stun it, buying you time to cast spells or heal. For ranged mobs, try to out-spam them at maximum range. If you run out of mana, wait, or run up to engage in melee. If the mob runs out of mana, it will often run to you, giving you the opportunity to engage or increase distance to spam again. Levels 4 - 5 At Level 4, you can learn Moonfire and Rejuvenation, both effect-over-time spells. Continue to open combat with Wrath, throwing in a periodic Moonfire to land the debuff, walking backwards or strafing to increase distance. Even at melee range, throw in a Moonfire when necessary, since as an instant cast, it isn't susceptible to spell interruption. Moonfire is also good at tagging the last blow when a mob is weak or running. Keep the Moonfire debuff active at all times during combat. Use Rejuvenation to supplement your direct healing. Use Healing Touch for large, time-critical gaps in health. Levels 6 - 7 At Level 6, you can learn Thorns, an offensive buff. Keep this, along with Mark of the Wild, on at all times. Levels 8 - 9 At Level 8, you can learn your first crowd-control spell, Entangling Roots. Continue to open combat with two Wraths and a Moonfire. When the mob comes running towards you, root it in place. Now, you have many options. You can run away, rebuff yourself, or increase distance to help spam spells. As you fight mobs, try to keep them rooted at all times and away from you. Use Entangling Roots to halt runners from calling more mobs. Notable Early Quests '' The intention is to link into the Quests page here with a few low-level quests once they are added, with particular emphasis on including quests with nice druid rewards, and any Class-specific quests. No real need to include the very basic starting quests as everybody will see those easily enough -- Goldark'' It is interesting to note that there is a Druid trainer in Silvermoon City as well as one near the Exodar. It is therefore possible for Druids to train in those zones, instead of in their native ones. Feral Leveling While it is perfectly possible to level using Balance or Resto, you will not level anywhere near as fast as a Feral Druid. Here is the talent order for a fast leveling Feral Druid. This build also puts a lot of emphasis on cat form. Bear form should only be used when against 3 or more mobs, or emergency situations. As far as gear, this build will allow you to level using only trash gear and gear won from quests. This was tested on a feral druid speed run. Levels 10 - 14 Ferocity - Rank 5/5 Reduces the cost of your Maul, Swipe, Claw, Rake and Mangle abilities by 5 Rage or Energy. Levels 15 - 16 Savage Fury - Rank 2/2 Increases the damage done by Claw, Rake, Mangle and Maul by 10%. Levels 17 - 19 Thick Hide - Rank 3/3 Increases your Armor contribution from items by 10%. Very helpful when in bear form, and a extra boost of armor is needed. Levels 20 - 22 Sharpened Claws - Rank 3/3 Increases your critical strike chance while in Bear, Dire Bear or Cat Form by 6%. Levels 23 - 24 Feral Swiftness - Rank 2/2 Increases your movement speed by 30% while outdoors in Cat Form and increases your chance to dodge while in Cat Form, Bear Form and Dire Bear Form by 4%. Levels 25 - 27 Levels 28 - 29 Level 30 Levels 31 - 32 Levels 33 - 34 Levels 35 - 39 Heart of the Wild - Rank 5/5 Increases your Intellect by 20%. In addition, while in Bear or Dire Bear Form your Stamina is increased by 20% and while in Cat Form your attack power is increased by 10%. Level 40 Leader of the Pack - Rank 1/1 While in Cat, Bear or Dire Bear Form, the Leader of the Pack increases ranged and melee critical chance of all party members within 45 yards by 5%. Levels 41 - 43 Survival of the Fittest - Rank 3/3 Increases all attributes by 3% and reduces the chance you'll be critically hit by melee attacks by 3%. Levels 44 - 45 Improved Leader of the Pack - Rank 2/2 Your Leader of the Pack ability also causes affected targets to heal themselves for 4% of their total health when they critically hit with a melee or ranged attack. The healing effect cannot occur more than once every 6 sec. In addition, you gain 8% of your maximum mana when you benefit from this heal. Levels 46 - 48 Predatory Instincts - Rank 3/3 While in Cat Form, Bear Form, or Dire Bear Form, increases your damage from melee critical strikes by 8% and your chance to avoid area effect attacks by 12%. Levels 49 Primal Precision - Rank 1/2 Increases your expertise by 5, and you are refunded 40% of the energy cost of a finishing move if it fails to land. Level 50 Mangle - Rank 1/1 Mangle the target, inflicting damage and causing the target to take additional damage from bleed effects for 12 sec. This ability can be used in Cat Form or Dire Bear Form. Mangle will effectively replace Claw as your bread-n-butter combo attack. It crits more often, and does more damage. It also applies a debuff that makes your Shred ability bleed more. Level 51 - 53 Improved Mangle - Rank 3/3 Reduces the cooldown of your Mangle (Bear) ability by 1.5 sec., and reduces the energy cost of your Mangle (Cat) ability by 6. Level 54 Primal Precision - Rank 2/2 Increases your expertise by 10, and you are refunded 80% of the energy cost of a finishing move if it fails to land. At this point, you are pretty much done with the Feral tree for now. Move over to the Restoration tree for more talents. Levels 55 - 59 Furor - Rank 5/5 Gives you 100% chance to gain 10 Rage when you shapeshift into Bear and Dire Bear Form, and you keep up to 100 of your Energy when you shapeshift into Cat Form, and increases your total Intellect while in Moonkin form by 10%. Levels 60 - 62 Natural Shapeshifter - Rank 3/3 Reduces the mana cost of all shapeshifting by 30%. Levels 63 - 64 Naturalist - Rank 2/5 Reduces the cast time of your Healing Touch spell by 0.2 sec and increases the damage you deal with physical attacks in all forms by 4%. Level 65 Omen of Clarity - Rank 1/1 Each of the Druid's damage, healing spells and auto attacks has a chance of causing the caster to enter a Clearcasting state. The Clearcasting state reduces the Mana, Rage or Energy cost of your next damage, healing spell or offensive ability by 100%. Levels 66 - 67 Master Shapeshifter - Rank 2/2 Grants an effect which lasts while the Druid is within the respective shapeshift form. Bear Form - Increases physical damage by 4%. Cat Form - Increases critical strike chance by 4% Moonkin Form - Increases spell damage by 4%. Tree of Life Form - Increases healing by 4%. At this point, you're done with the Restoration tree. Move back to the Feral tree for the final talents. Level 68 - 70 Infected Wounds - Rank 3/3 Here is the level 70 build. http://www.wowhead.com/?talent=0ZxMGcfrd0eR0IzhZ0gczb On Soloing and Grouping Soloing Even at early levels, the soloing Druid acts as the versatile character he's supposed to be. Typical fights will include a Direct Damage spell (Starfire or Wrath) to start, a Damage over Time spell (Moonfire), a Healing over Time spell (Rejuvenation), and some melee attacks. As a Druid, you should never lose your powerful Mark of the Wild Buff spell. Having this buff on you is like wearing your armor. You would not fight nude, would you? Thorns is a damage shield and should always be visible in your buff list too. These spells are all available at level 4; Thorns is a available at level 6. Grouping The druid is one of the most versatile classes in WoW, (after level 20) because you can be almost any part of a 5-man dungeon/raid. It can be quite hard to learn to play all the roles a Druid is capable of, but the versatility and ease of finding a group is worth it. No tank? Use your bear form. No healer? Keep an eye on the party's health bars, and heal when they're injured. Need a scout? Use your cat form. Communicate! Ask the others what they plan to do, what they expect from you. Don't forget your Crowd Control spells, Entangling Roots and later Hibernate, can be useful if the group gets more enemies than expected. If you're dpsing a group, remember to attack the same target as the other dpsers. This is most easily achieved through the /assist command, causing you to target the same target as the one you assist. It might not be all that important at early levels, but its an important habit to get used to for later levels. If you are the Tank, use your Bear form, and remind your group to always assist you in battle, to ensure you focus your party's firepower on one mob. They can do this by selecting you (use the F1-F5 keys to target group members) and then pressing "F". This way, mobs will die faster. The Druid is a very versatile class. Especially when acting as a dpser, you have the ability to offheal, offtank, combat rez and Innervate if needed, saving the group from what would otherwise be a wipe. It can be done if acting as a tank or healer as well, but is much harder to pull off. Tip: Don't cast Thorns on someone who isn't supposed to be hit in a fight (generally, everyone but the tank). It causes relatively little damage, and will cause the mobs to generate threat towards them. Useful Professions The Druid can benefit directly and indirectly from many of the professions available. Primary Professions * Skinning and Leatherworking : This combination will be immediately useful to the Druid. Expect to wear a combination of found items and items you make yourself as your leatherworking keeps pace with your level. Skinning will increase naturally (you can actually max out at 300 while still in your 40's) but you will spend a lot of money levelling your leatherworking skill. Also, a lot of leatherwork items will sell for less than the cost of the raw materials (because there are a lot of other people out there trying to level their skills too and they will flood the market) - it is only when you hit on the niche items that you can make a profit (things like the Gem Studded Belt, Feathered Breastplate, Ironfeather items, etc.) Furthermore, leatherworking allows you to create "Armor Kits" which will increase the armor value of Chest, Hands, Legs, and Feet armor items. * Herbalism and Alchemy : Even though, as a caster, the Druid can rely on his own abilities to heal and buff himself, additional potions are always welcome (though notably, they can't be used in feral forms). It is especially notable that Night Elves and Tauren are both particularly suited to a career in herbalism, and thus alchemy as well. Tauren receive +15 levels of Herbalism skill and the elven zones are remarkably abundant in flowers to pick. : The ability to stealth in Cat Form can also prove quite useful, as it allows gathering of herbs (or the use of other gathering professions) without having to fight mobs in the area. : The Druid quest Gathering the Cure requires you to gather a bunch of Earthroot - which task is certainly made easier if you can pick them yourself. The spell Soothe Animal also has its use when herbing, as it can save you the time needed to fight that beast which would otherwise attack you. * Herbalism and Skinning : A mix of the two above, this is very good for players who don't care so much for making things themselves, but would rather sell the raw materials for money. Another benefit with this combo is that you can often find a Leatherworker or Alchemist willing to make the item/potion you want if you supply the materials, possibly with a small fee if the recipe is rare. Start your profession early! It's usually not too expensive, and you want to ensure that anything you create with your skills is applicable to your Druid's level. Secondary Professions * Cooking * Fishing * First Aid Cooking is always useful for any class, as it provides food that affects your stats. Fishing supports this profesion. As for First-Aid, it is certainly less beneficial for you than it is for other professions, but not entirely. Not only bandages don't use your mana, they also don't trigger 5-second rule (even your instant-cast heals stops your mana regeneration for next 5 seconds). Long-Term Goals Some of the main abilities of the Druid are obtained through quests. These include the Bear Form, the Aquatic Form, and the Cure Poison spell. These quests are given to the Druid by one of the Druid trainers of your Capital city (Thunder Bluff for Tauren and Darnassus for Night Elves). The Druid trainer will first provide you with a special Teleport spell : Teleport: Moonglade. Moonglade is a sacred place for all Druids, shared by Tauren and Night Elves. Remember that this spell can also be used as a sort of second hearthstone, providing easy access to northern Kalimdor. See also * Druid Forms * Druid Talent Analysis External links Druid Druid,Starting